


Underworld Connections

by im_from_mars_duhh



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Demon Shane Madej, Friendship, Humor, Paranoia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_from_mars_duhh/pseuds/im_from_mars_duhh
Summary: Ryan sees something horrible in a reflection while shooting on location, leaving him with a feeling of intense fear unlike anything he’s ever felt before. In the days following, his nights become sleepless, riddled with nightmares, while his days become burdened with harrowing thoughts. Finally, Ryan decides to take action in order to put a stop to these plights and discover the true nature of what he saw in that reflection.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 178





	Underworld Connections

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween!

Ryan couldn’t believe his eyes. He simply could not comprehend what he had just seen. And naturally, as tends to happen when the unexplainable occurs in his near vicinity: he froze, and his brain went in to overdrive.

It was a demon. He knew it was. He had just seen the face of a demon in the full-length mirror behind him through the reflection of the closet door mirror he was currently facing. It wasn’t just the fact that he was sure he had just seen the blank, void face of an otherworldly being, though, but also the fact that the featureless face was where his best friend Shane Madej’s was supposed to be.

They were at an abandoned children’s hospital, seeking proof of ghosts and whatever other supernatural beings they could while shooting on location in a rural part of Missouri. The hospital was settled back in the country, nestled in a heavily wooded area, and quite remote, the nearest town being about a thirty-minute drive away. Needless to say, they were out in the middle of nowhere, which already had Ryan on edge.

There was some story imbedded into the history of the hospital about a little girl who used to live in a room on the second floor. She had died of tuberculosis way back when, having the worst case out of any patient at the time. She had suffered a horrible death, and it seemed that she now haunted the halls of the hospital in spite of her tragic and untimely demise, her old room being the biggest hotspot.

That room of course being where Ryan and Shane were now, attempting to contact the vengeful spirit. Ryan had been buzzing with nerves as he entered the room, followed closely by Shane, who had noticed his state and laughed, saying, “You need to chill, man. There’s no little girl ghost here, I promise you.”

He had replied with, “Yeah, whatever,” knowing that Shane didn’t believe in that sort of thing in the first place, so why bother listening to him? But now, after seeing what he thinks he saw, his racing mind was starting to think differently on the past few minutes. Hell, he was starting to think differently in regard to his entire life now.

They had come in to set up, maybe get some B-roll, before sticking to their schedule of using the spirit box and conducting EVPs in hopes of getting in contact with the little girls spirit. As they got ready, their cameraman Mark—the only other person currently with them in the hospital—was outside of the room and a bit down the hall. He was messing around with his camera, making sure it had a sufficient amount of battery left, that the audio was working, and other such important technical things.

The room the two were in was quite simple, containing only a child sized bed, a nightstand, an old IV pole, and a full-length mirror. There was also a closet, which had two sliding doors, both of which had full sized mirrors attached to them as well.

From the way he was standing, Ryan was facing the closet mirrors, with the full-length mirror behind him. Shane was standing in front of him and a bit to the side, enough so that Ryan could see himself in the mirror, along with Shane’s back, and the mirror behind him, which held the reflection of Shane’s front. It was when he had looked at Shane’s reflection in the full-length mirror through the closet mirror that everything went south.

Shane was looking straight at him in person as he filmed him with both his handheld camera and GoPro, not through the full-length mirror behind him, so all Ryan could see was Shane’s profile in the reflection. But it was enough.

His profile was black. Not just any black, though: it was a void. A complete void, like a black hole. It was that vantablack color; the kind of black you see when looking down into a bottomless pit in the middle of the night with no moon out. It seemed to draw in any light it could without a single reflection upon it. And looking at it, it was as if it was drawing him in as well, his eyes glued not only on the void-like darkness, but specifically on two points of deep, shining red where Shane’s eyes should have been.

This didn’t seem like a normal, darkened reflection caused by the small amount of light, nor did it seem like some shadow. There was no light near them that could create the hellish red he couldn’t tear his gaze from. His eyes couldn’t be playing tricks on him, not with this sort of thing. Not with the feeling of complete and utter horror and despair it left within him.

He felt like he was in mortal danger. Sure, he had been scared out of his wits before, both on and off location, but this was different. His nerves had already been high, but after seeing that reflection, it wasn’t just the icing on top. It was also the fondant, the filling, the decorations, _fuck_ —it was the entire fucking cake, with fifty fucking layers of every flavor ever created, towering high above him, looming, menacing. It was completely incomprehensible, seemingly impossible to swallow. But there it was.

So that was how Ryan found himself standing there, staring at the reflection of Shane in the mirror behind him through the mirror in front of him, completely frozen.

After what seemed like an eternity, mind caught and slowing down as he tried to process what he was seeing and feeling, he was broken from his trance.

“Ryan!”

He jumps at the call of his name, the sound echoing throughout the room. His head quickly snaps in Shane’s direction, his eyes flickering quickly over his form before settling on his face. That face; the familiar, warm, soft fleshed face of his best friend. The man before him couldn’t be some sort of demon… right?

“Hello!” Shane brings his hand up, waving it in front of Ryan, the goofy action igniting a spark of comfort and calmness in him. Ryan gulped down the bundle of nerves in his throat and brought his hand up to lightly shoo Shane’s away.

“What?” he asks, voice a bit shakier than normal for a haunted children’s hospital. Shane caught the shake, raising an eyebrow in question.

“You good?” Shane asks. Ryan doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t want to tell Shane what he thinks he just saw for a variety of reasons, as there were many different ways this could go. Either one, Shane would laugh at him, call him delusional. Two, Shane would just stare at him like he’s gone crazy and eventually ask if he wanted to leave the location, which he would definitely want to do, even though they haven’t gotten enough footage for the show yet. Or three… Shane would lunge at him, attack him, and kill him on the spot, because he’s a demon and that’s what demons do.

Ryan resists the urge to physically shake his head in an effort the clear the thought. He doesn’t need to look crazier than he probably already does. _It was probably nothing._ He tries to reason with himself. _You’re just letting the creepy atmosphere get to your head._

So, Ryan clears his throat and thinks up a quick, plausible answer. Something that would be expected, though that isn’t too far off from the truth so he’s not completely lying. They once told their audience they would never lie to them. They wouldn’t be one of those typical paranormal shows that over exaggerated and completely disregarded certain things, all for the sake of views. That meant no lying to his partner, as he was still on camera, and he did not yet have to whole and explicit truth.

“I, uh, I thought I saw something behind me in the reflection. Near the mirror…” he trails off, not wanting to give too much away.

Shane’s eyes quickly flicker to the full-length mirror in front of him before turning around to regard the closet mirror behind him. As he does this, Ryan stares at the ground, scared to look up and watch Shane’s actions for fear of the chance that something horrible might possibly come from it.

Shane chuckles, startling Ryan and causing him to look up. Shane is looking down at him, humor apparent.

“It was probably your own shadow,” Shane suggests, to which Ryan furrows his eyebrows.

Before he answers, Ryan takes a risk and glances at the reflection of the full-length mirror once more, only to find Shane’s regular, human-looking profile. Such a stark contrast to what he saw only a few minutes before.

Ryan swallows once more and lets out a small, nervous chuckle. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, your light is on me, so I could’ve moved and saw the result of that.”

“Exactly,” Shane responds. Ryan flashes him a small smile, and before he can stop himself his eyes drift once more to the reflection of the full-length mirror, hoping that he might see what he saw before while also hoping that he doesn’t. And as his eyes study Shane’s profile once again in the reflection, the profile suddenly shifts and Shane is now facing him, eyes piercing through the double reflection.

“It was just your eyes playing tricks on you, Ry. You should just forget about it.”

It isn’t a threat. It doesn’t sound like one and deep down he doesn’t believe Shane would ever threaten him. But there was something about the way Shane had said the sentence though, something in it’s inflection. Like it was in Ryan’s best interest to abandon whatever thoughts were going through his head right then. And of course, Ryan would have, had he not had the feeling that Shane knew exactly what he had seen in the first place.

***

Ryan couldn’t sleep.

It had been about a week since their shoot at the abandoned children’s hospital, and since he had seen _it_. He didn’t want to think about it, but no matter how hard he tried, it seemed to occupy his mind twenty-four seven. It had even begun to pop up in his dreams, and it was then that he decided to draw the line. He had to get it to stop. But how?

It was one-thirty in the morning on a Saturday, way past his usual bedtime, but there he was, having just awoken from a nightmare riddled with the blank, void-like, inhuman face and it’s piercing red eyes. As much as it scared him, he was beginning to become frustrated. He needed to be able to function like a normal human being. He needed his thoughts back, and he needed his sleep back, but to be able to do this he first had get rid of the image of the god forsaken face that he wasn’t even too entirely sure he had seen correctly in the first place.

_But it had been so real…_

Ryan shot up in bed, rubbing his face in irritation, and then it hit him. What was it that he usually did when he was stuck on a problem? Well, search for the solution, of course!

Dragging himself out of bed, he walked over to his desk and sat down, opening up the lid of his laptop and turning it on. As soon as it was ready to go, he opened up a web browser and went to Google, then began to type the first thing that came to mind: _How to tell if someone is a demon._

Enter.

After a few moments, the browser loaded its results and off he went, in search of some answers. If he wanted to get rid of this problem, he was going to have to prove whether what he saw was actually real or not, and to do that, he had to know how to tell if someone was a demon. That someone being Shane.

He opened tab after tab of multiple different sources, all having to do with various demon lore, ranging anywhere from religious texts to TV show fantasies. He read through each site thoroughly, jotting down whatever information he deemed useful into a blank word document that he would come back to study later. As for what he was specifically looking for, all he knew for sure was that he needed something inconspicuous because he didn’t want to alert Shane to what he was doing. Because if the man was in fact a demon, then him knowing that Ryan knew might not end too well for Ryan. He shuddered at the thought of what a demon could do to him, the various horrific possibilities suddenly pouring through his mind, though he was quick to shut the thoughts down and push them away, bringing himself back to focus solely on his research. He didn’t need to give himself yet another panic attack over the situation. That would do no help.

Finally, after staring at his laptop screen for so long that his eyes were starting to water, Ryan glanced at the time, seeing that it was now five twenty-six. He had been working for almost four hours straight. Rubbing his eyes, he then glanced back at his word document, seeing that he now had a few pages full of notes. Deeming this enough for now, he closed out of the tabs and opened the document fully, ready to go over what he had gathered, hoping to god that there was something he would be able to do to help him.

***

Work Monday was nerve wracking for Ryan. It was the first day since his weekend of non-stop research that he would be seeing Shane, thus making it the first day that he would be trying to figure out whether Shane was a demon or not. He almost didn’t think he could do it, but the lack of sleep and the haunting thoughts that had begun following the experience were enough to help him get over the nervousness and finally take action.

After poring through the extensive notes he had taken, Ryan finally whittled the information down to a few select things he could try out that would be the least inconspicuous, and now he was ready to try out the first selection. Plan one.

Plan one was a pen. But not just any pen; it was a pen that had been blessed. In theory, what was supposed to happen was that if the blessed object was to be touched by a demon, the demon would be burned instantly and drop the object. It had taken Ryan forever to find something inconspicuous enough to be able to get Shane to hold, and it had been even harder for him to find a priest who would actually bless the object. But alas, after finally thinking up a plan and visiting many, many churches, he was able to procure the object and get the first part of his first plan going.

He made sure to get to work before Shane, having a good notion of when he would be arriving after years of working with him. Once there, he set to work gathering every single writing utensil in sight, both on his desk and Shane’s, then stuffed the objects into a ziplock back and shoved them to the bottom of his work bag.

A few people at the surrounding desks gave him weird looks, to which he says, “Prank,” and that seems to be good enough for them, all of them turning away to return to their own business.

Half an hour after gathering and hiding all the utensils, Shane shows up, plopping down into the seat next to Ryan and flashing him a big, goofy grin.

“Hey, Ry!” he greets, setting his bag down and booting up his computer. Ryan flashes what he hopes seems like a tired and not at all nervous smile.

“Hey, Shane.”

And off to work they go. Well, Shane begins to work, and Ryan fiddles around with his desktop icons and clicks open random projects. He opens and closes things, places audio files where they definitely don’t belong, and checks his email every twenty seconds.

Finally, fifteen minutes into working, Shane begins to search around the desk, obviously looking for something. Ryan turns to look at him, regarding him curiously, which Shane quickly notices.

“I need to write on a sticky note but I can’t find a damn pen,” he says, answering Ryan’s unasked question as he continues to search around his desk. Ryan quickly swallows, knowing it was now or never.

“Oh, uh, here. I’ve got one,” he replies, then reaches down and unzips his bag, grabbing the blessed pen with a shaky hand. He then quickly sets it down on the desk and pushes it towards Shane, who furrows his eyebrows for a split second at the odd action before picking up the pen, only to quickly drop it.

“Ah!” Shane exclaims lowly, then looks at Ryan. Ryan is frozen, staring at the pen where is has clattered back down onto the table. “What the hell was that, Ryan? A trick pen?”

Ryan can feel panic begin to build in his spine, quickly climbing its way up into his chest and blossoming against his collar. “Uhhh…”

He has to think of something. Anything.

“Yeah,” he finally settles on, putting on a facade and letting out a flat laugh. “Ha. Yeah. Gotcha.”

Shane, who is rubbing at the fingers that he had gripped the pen with, starts to smile at him, letting out a laugh of his own.

“Good one, Ry. You should probably crank down the power on that thing for next time, though. You almost burned my fingers off!” Shane laughs once more, before adding. “So, where are my pens, then? I know you took them for this little trick.”

That brings Ryan out of his panic slightly, sent fumbling for the ziplock of writing utensils in his bag. He pulls the baggie out as quickly as he can and tosses it to Shane, then stands.

“I gotta go to the bathroom.”

Shane glances up at him briefly before going back to the baggie of utensils. “’Kay.”

And off Ryan went.

***

After the pen incident, Ryan had decided to go home, saying that he hadn’t been feeling well, which wasn’t too far from the truth. He needed to calm himself down before he threw up and blacked out. He needed time to think.

So, Shane had picked up the pen and had been burned. What does that really prove? He was a Boogara all the way, obviously, but he had to look deeper into the facts here.

Although blessed, the pen was in fact metal. Now, he isn’t a scientist, but metal can shock people, can’t it? That being said, Shane was wearing quite a fuzzy sweater, so who’s to say that he didn’t already have some static electricity building up through that, so that when he touched the pen with his normal human fingers, a shock of electricity was met against his normal human skin and sent through his normal human nervous system? Yeah, it seemed totally plausible. That could have been what happened.

Sure, it also could have been that since the pen was blessed it had burned Shane because he’s a demon, since demons can’t interact with blessed objects, but in the end he was going to need more proof. He couldn’t just write Shane off as a demon after watching him pick up and drop a measly pen (and see his face as an otherworldly, pitch-black void with beaming red eyes). He was going to need more evidence, harder evidence. Something more convincing and less easy to dispute.

It was time to move on to plan two.

***

After giving himself a few days to calm down and think over everything, Ryan was finally ready to execute plan two.

Plan two was holy water. A bit harder to debunk.

He would be placing the water into a coffee cup—something that wouldn’t be out of place and wouldn’t let Shane see what was inside—and when Shane had his arm near him on the desk, he would “accidentally” knock over his cup and spill the holy water on Shane. And this time, if the water touched Shane and burned him, then there really was no way to deny what he was trying to: that Shane might in fact be a demon.

He had just so happened to have an old coffee cup that he had yet to throw away, so that morning before work he washed it out and dried it thoroughly, then poured a whole vile of holy water into the cup. It might seem like much, but he had to make sure that he would have enough liquid so that it would travel far enough to touch Shane.

After psyching himself up in the parking lot, Ryan puts on the most neutral expression he can and walks into the building, heading to his office space, nerves buzzing. He soon reaches his desk though, which Shane was already at, and sits down slowly, setting the cup of holy water on the side near Shane.

“Hey, Ry!” Shane greets. Ryan flashes him a tight smile.

“Hey.”

“You alright?” Shane asks, eyebrows furrowing. “You looked constipated.”

Ryan fights the urge to roll his eyes at the comment. “No, I’m not. I’m just… my stomach is a bit achy.”

“Still not feeling well?”

“No.”

Shane lets out a small, amused huff. “Damn. Let me know where you ate so I know not to go there anytime soon.”

Ryan can’t help but to let out a small chuckle at the comment, his nerves settling a bit. “Wasn’t anything I ate, I don’t think.”

“Wonder what’s got you all in a tizzy then.”

Ryan was instantly back to being full-blown nervous again, the comment sending a wave of panic through him. _He’s noticed?_

“I don’t know,” was all he could think of.

Suddenly, Shane leans a bit closer to him. “Was it about what you think you saw at the shoot?” he asks, his tone a bit lower. Ryan stays silent, causing Shane to sigh. “Ryan, you can talk to me, you know that, right?”

Ryan gulps nervously, then shakes his head. “Yeah, I know.”

The corner of Shane’s lip twitches up slightly in a small, caring way. “Alright,” he replies, then after a moment continues. “It was probably just your shadow, Ryan. Not a ghost, or a demon—”

Hearing the word come out of Shane’s mouth while in reference to that night sets something off in Ryan, as he’s suddenly pushing his chair back in an attempt to flee the conversation, which in turn causes the desk to shake harshly and sends his cup of holy water flying prematurely.

He watches as Shane shoots up and away from the liquid so as to not get all wet, his reflexes scarily quick, and Ryan can’t tell whether he’s disappointed or relieved that the liquid didn’t touch Shane.

“Shit!” Shane exclaims as he watches the liquid pour onto the floor, and Ryan soon realizes that all eyes in the room are on them, and he is suddenly embarrassed.

He finally moves, quickly picking up the cup before all of the holy water is dumped onto the table as Shane pushes the papers on his side away, miraculously unscathed. With the force of where Ryan had pushed the desk, the cup had fallen straight towards him, luckily missing him as he had pushed away from the desk, though a few of his own papers were not as lucky.

“I’ll get something to wipe it up,” Shane says and is gone before Ryan can say anything.

While Shane goes to get something to clean up the mess, Ryan puts the cap back onto the cup and sets it off to his other side, away from where Shane sits, already having given up on the plan. He would look like an absolute fool now if he were to spill the liquid twice, especially if it proved that Shane wasn’t a demon.

“What a waste,” he mutters as he looks at the pool of liquid on his desk, watching as it drips onto the floor. He then starts to grab the papers that were underneath the wetness, folding them and stuffing them into his bag without a care, already drained and no longer caring after everything that has happened.

“Here,” Shane’s voice suddenly says from behind him, causing him to turn quickly, startled. Shane stands there, holding out a towel to him with a small smile. “I found this in the janitor’s closet by the restroom. Thought it would clean up better than a bunch of paper towels.”

Ryan reaches forward and grabs the towel. “Thanks,” he replies, then sets the towel on top of the pool of liquid, letting it soak it up as Shane sits down next to him.

“So… what was that about?” Shane asks. Ryan glances over at him as he pushes the towel around the desk, soaking up the spilt liquid, then running it along the edge to catch what was dripping.

“I don’t know,” Ryan begins with a dismissive shrug, then kneels down to wipe up what has fallen onto the floor. He can feel Shane’s eyes on him as he stares intently down at the puddle on the ground, placing the towel over it.

“You sure? ‘Cause it seemed like you were about to bolt.”

Ryan looks up at Shane, only to see that he’s staring down at him intensely. Intensely enough to make Ryan turn away, focusing back on the mess he was cleaning up.

“I just don’t wanna talk about that night.”

“Why not?”

“Because it freaked me out.”

“Is that why you’ve been so nervous?”

Ryan gulps. He wants to tell Shane everything; tell him what he saw, how it’s been hindering his thoughts, his sleep, and what he’s doing now in trying to prove something that might not be true, but he can’t. He can’t let his best friend know how paranoid he’s become of him. He can’t bear to think of how that would make Shane feel.

_Or of the consequences that might occur…_

He squeezes his eyes shut to get rid of the thought.

“I guess,” he finally lands on, then continues to busy himself with the towel, wiping at the spot on the floor where the liquid had been over and over, even though there was nothing left to gather. He hears Shane sigh from above.

“Alright, if you don’t wanna talk about it, we don’t have to talk about it.”

Ryan clenches his jaw a bit before nodding, then stands, sopping towel in hand. “I’m gonna go find somewhere to put this,” he says, then leaves before Shane can answer.

He finds himself heading into the restroom, where he tosses the wet towel into an empty mop bucket and goes to wash his hands. After doing so, he splashes some water on his face, trying to calm his nerves. He then looks at himself in the mirror and realizes that he really hasn’t been as discreet as he had been hoping. Well, at least since Shane had said what he said that caused him to knock over the holy water.

Oh. That’s right. Plan two had been a bust.

Ryan sighs, closing his eyes and leaning his forehead against the mirror.

_What now?_

On the list of things he had made to try out—which if inconspicuous was what he was going for, wasn’t very long—holy water had been his best bet, and he had blew it. There was no other way he could try to get the water onto Shane without his knowledge, and he couldn’t go around spilling it again. Besides, there wasn’t enough left now to reach Shane if he tried.

He stands there for a few long minutes, thinking over all of the information he had gathered and all of the things he could do to figure out whether Shane was a demon or not. And then it hits him.

Seeing was believing, right? Shane always said that in order for him to believe anything he would have to see it with his own two eyes. Well, maybe that’s just what Ryan would have to do with Shane himself. Catch him in the act. But how?

Shane had said he was always open to talk. So, what if they chatted? Or more so, what if Ryan went over to Shane’s place under the guise of talking, and while on a bathroom break or snack run or something of the sort was able to catch Shane in a demon state, just as he’s sure he had through the double reflection at the abandoned children’s hospital? If what he saw was indeed real, then it would seem that he had caught Shane at a weak point, so what’s to say he couldn’t do it again? Then he would have enough information and he would know the truth. And if it didn’t work, well, he could get himself to drop it. _Until it happens again…_

He shakes the thought from his head. _No, stop that. Just think in the now. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, then oh well. Shane isn’t a demon after all. Isn’t that what you want?_

Ryan steps away from leaning against the mirror and looks at himself once more. He fixes his shirt, then his hair, and after deeming himself good enough, walks out and back towards his desk, ready to ask Shane if they can have a talk.

***

Ryan feels guilty. Very guilty.

After getting back to his desk, he had apologized to Shane for his actions and expressed some interest in talking everything over, which led to Shane asking him if he’d like to meet at his apartment later that night to chat, which Ryan accepted.

He now stood at Shane’s front door, getting up the nerve to knock, and to follow through with his third and final plan. And along with the nerves that were buzzing through him at what he was trying to accomplish, guilt had started to settle in with it as well as he thought about the ‘what if’s.

What if he didn’t find what he was looking for tonight? What if he didn’t actually see what he thought he did? What if he was wrong? What if he hurts Shane?

He gulps, raising his fist to knock, when suddenly the front door opens.

“You’ve been standing there for like five minutes, Ryan,” Shane starts, and Ryan can’t help the look of confusion that crosses his face, which amuses Shane. “I heard you walk up. I was expecting you, remember?” he laughs and then backs up, making room from Ryan to walk in.

Ryan just offers him a small smile and makes his way through the front door, pushing all of his feelings aside, ready to embark on his final plan.

“Sorry,” Ryan says, heading over to stand next to the couch. Shane shuts the front door and follows.

“No worries, man.”

The two stand there in an uncomfortable, slightly awkward silence for a few seconds before Shane speaks up.

“Want something to eat? I can make some popcorn.”

Ryan nods. “Sure, sounds good.”

Shane smiles then heads into the kitchen, Ryan following, though stopping at the entrance. He watches as Shane moves about, getting out a packet of popcorn and preparing it to be cooked.

Ryan decides to start looking now, trying to find any reflective surface he can. The closest thing he can find is the microwave, which reflects back a blurry image of Shane’s face before Shane opens the object and puts the popcorn bag in. No luck there.

A few minutes later the popcorn is done and Shane has divided it evenly into two bowls. The two sit on Shane’s couch, munching loudly on the snack in yet another awkward silence. After another uncomfortable minute, Shane speaks up once more.

“Really, what’s been going on with you, man? You’ve been acting weird.”

Ryan doesn’t look at him, can’t. He just looks around the room as he ponders the question and how to answer, looking at every reflective surface he can in hopes of finding (or maybe not finding?) that same dark, non-reflective void and deep red eyes he had seen nearly two weeks ago, but to no avail.

“Ryan?” Shane asks, drawing Ryan’s attention back to him, and Ryan finally looks at him. The look on Shane’s face is enough to cause the guilt he had been feeling earlier to flare back up. He looks very concerned, eyebrows furrowed, lips in a hard line. Ryan sighs.

“I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

Ryan resists the urge to roll his eyes. “It’s just been… hard, since the shoot.”

“But why?” Shane asks. Ryan just looks at him, eyes searching. After a moment, Shane speaks back up. “Because of what you think you saw?”

Ryan’s jaw tightens. “Yeah.”

Shane lets out a small laugh. “Ryan, it was nothing! Like I’ve said countless times, it was probably a shadow! We were in a dark room, I had my light right on you, and you could see right behind you. You probably shifted and saw your shadow move too. Hell, maybe it was even a reflection of my shadow from your light that you saw in the mirror!”

Ryan wants to scream. He wants to yell at Shane, tell him what he really saw, but he doesn’t. There are so many different possibilities as to what could happen if he does, and he doesn’t want to know which one might come true. At this point though, his patience was beginning to wear thin. Very thin.

“It didn’t look like a shadow.” Ryan states, and Shane’s the one clenching his jaw now.

“Maybe it was the nightstand, or the IV pole. They were there in the darkness too, you could’ve seen one of them out of the corner of your eye.”

“It wasn’t on that side of the room.”

“Ryan,” Shane starts tightly, pinching the bridge of his nose briefly before looking back at him, “You’ve got to understand, there was nothing else in that room with us. No ghosts, no ghouls, not even Mark.”

“How do you know?” Ryan shoots back. Shane leans away, taken aback by harsh tone in Ryan’s voice. “Because ‘ghosts aren’t real’?”

Shane is quite now. He doesn’t argue, doesn’t dispute. So, Ryan continues.

“What about demons?” he asks. Shane doesn’t respond; just sits there, tense and unmoving. “If there were no ghosts in there with us—no ghouls, no Mark—then what about a demon?” It’s quiet for a few more moments. “Or was there just a demon in there with me?”

Shane looks to be clenching his jaw so tightly that he could break his teeth, and Ryan knows he shouldn’t have said anything, knows there are so many different ways this conversation could go, but he couldn’t take it anymore. Shane’s insistence had pushed him to the brink. After nearly two weeks of paranoia and sleep-loss and horrid thoughts and nightmares and plotting against his own best friend he was finally pushed off the edge, consequences be damned for the moment.

“Ryan,” Shane starts, and his voice is low, cautious yet warning, and it’s enough to make Ryan wish he hadn’t said anything at all. He begins to panic.

“I’ve got to go to the restroom,” Ryan says quickly and then he’s up, navigating expertly through the halls of his best friend’s apartment and soon arriving at the bathroom. He rushes inside and quickly shuts and locks the door, muffling Shane’s calls of his name from the other side.

Ryan walks over to the sink and grasps the edge of the counter tightly, squeezing his eyes shut and wishing that he could take back what he said, what he’s been doing. Wishing anything that would make it so that he wasn’t right here, right now.

A sudden knock at the bathroom door startles him, causing him to jump and gasp loudly. Next, the doorknob begins to rattle, sending a jolt of fear up his spine.

“Ryan,” Shane’s voice comes from the other side of the door. “Come on, open up. Let me in. We need to talk about this.”

“About what exactly?”

It’s silent for a moment.

“What you saw.”

Ryan gulps. “I thought it was what I thought I saw.”

“Ryan,” his voice sounds low and warning again, sending another jolt of fear through Ryan.

“I think you were right. I think I saw nothing,” Ryan calls out quickly, trying to backtrack, willing to say anything that would get him out of where this seems to be headed. But with no luck.

“Ryan, just open the door. Please,” and his voice is soft now, and sounds so sad. After years of being around Shane, he can tell when the man is being sincere, and this is what he sounds like when sincere.

He’s just about to open the door before he stops himself. _What if it’s a game? What if he’s just manipulating me?_ Ryan takes a step back towards the sink counter.

“I just want to go home, Shane,” Ryan replies, voice choked with emotion, and he truly wishes he could. He just wants to go home, curl up in bed, and go to sleep. He wants to forget any of this ever happened. He might have to quit his job and move away, but as long as he makes it out of this room alive, he thinks he’ll be fine.

“Of course you can, Ryan. I just want to talk to you first,” Shane replies, and he still sounds so sincere, and Ryan can’t help it. Shane’s voice is so sincere and so full of emotion, he sounds sadder than Ryan can ever remember. He’s known the man for years, he’s his best friend for Christ’s sake!

Fighting down his nerves, Ryan takes a step forward and reaches out a shaky hand to unlock the door, then grabs the doorknob, twists, and slowly pulls it open.

He is soon face to face with Shane, who is standing right on the other side, already looking down at him. To Ryan’s surprise his features are fallen, looking very displeased and upset with the events that have transpired.

“What do you want to talk about, then?” Ryan finally starts, voice wavering, breaking the ice and hoping for the best.

This time, Shane gulps nervously before speaking.

“About what you saw in the mirror at the hospital. My reflection.”

Ryan’s heartbeat picks up at the words, his mind showing him an image of the reflection he’s become so familiar with in the days since the shoot.

“Yeah?” Ryan squeaks, no longer hiding his nerves.

Shane draws in a deep breath then exhales heavily through his nose. “It was what you thought it was.”

Ryan can feel his eyes widening at the conformation. “A… demon?” he asks, and Shane flinches at the word, but nods.

“Yeah.”

“So, you… your… but it was yours… your reflection?” Even though he’s been over it multiple times since it happened, Ryan tries to piece together the information he’s gathered, old and new, his reeling mind making it hard for him to bring what he’s thought about for so long to reality.

“Yes, my reflection. It was my reflection, Ryan.”

“So you’re a…” he doesn’t want to finish it, can’t. He’s thought about it so much, and even though he knew this day might come, deep down he didn’t believe it actually would. But it has.

Shane pinches the bridge of his nose once again, seeming to grow uneasy at Ryan’s inability to reach the conclusion. “Yes, Ryan. What you saw in the reflection was a demon. It was my reflection you saw. I’m a demon, Ryan.”

Ryan’s brain seems to short circuit at Shane’s words, causing his muscles to tighten as a hot wave of fear blossoms across his chest, moving like liquid heat up his neck and down his spine, his breath hitching. Then, everything goes black.

***

“Ryan? Ryan! Ry!”

He can hear his name being called out, and he can feel something hitting his cheek. Irritated, he swipes at whatever it is that’s batting at him as he opens his eyes.

“What? Why am I lying down?” Ryan asks as he starts to sit up, realizing that he was no longer in the doorway of the bathroom and that he was now lying on a couch. Once up, he looks to the side, only to find Shane sidled up next to him, leaning over, a look of concern across his face. “What the hell, man? What happened?”

“You—uh—fainted, Ry,” Shane responds slowly. Ryan furrows his eyebrows.

“Fainted? What the hell?”

“Seems like your brain kinda kicked into overdrive once you processed the news.”

“News? What—” Ryan starts, but then his thoughts are brought back to their previous conversation, and a jolt of fear suddenly runs up his spine once again. Then, almost involuntarily, he shoots back, scooting to the corner of the couch as quickly as he can, almost falling off of it in the process. “Fuck, man! Fuck!”

“Ryan, calm down—”

“Calm down? You want me to fucking calm down! Fuck! Dude, you’re a fucking demon! Oh my god!”

“Ryan—”

“No, Shane! If that even is your real name!” Shane huffs out a laugh at the sentence, but Ryan doesn’t find it quite as amusing.

Ryan’s trembling, mostly from fear, but there’s a bit of anger mixed in as well. His best friend is a demon. A fucking demon! And he hadn’t known! Had never been told!

“Do you not understand the weight of what I’ve just found out?” Ryan finally asks. Shane looks at him, his face hard-set, looking very serious.

“Of course I do, Ryan. Why do you think I never told you?”

“Well, it would’ve been nice to know! Or at least fucking eased into! Not just me happening to catch a glimpse of your fucking demonic figure!”

“Do you really think you would’ve believed me if I had told you?”

Ryan takes a moment to think over the question. He wants to say he would have, but he knows that that probably isn’t true. After all, if your best friend told you they were a demon, you’d probably think they were messing with you, wouldn’t you?

So, Ryan shakes his head in response, to which Shane pulls a I-told-you-so look at. “See?”

Before he can get too angry of the very Shane-like response, the gravity of the information settles over Ryan once more and he has to gulp down a bundle of nerves that have suddenly lodged their way in his throat.

“Well… what now, then? Are you gonna, you know…” Ryan can’t bring himself to say it. He’s too scared.

Picking up on the implication, Shane’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise, and he’s quickly moving his hands in front of himself in a ‘no’ gesture. “No, no! Of course not! I’m not gonna kill you, Ryan! What the fuck?”

Ryan looks at him suspiciously. “Well, I don’t know, maybe when you consider the fact that you’re a fucking demon!”

“Ryan, come on! We’ve known each other for years! Just because you’ve found out this one little thing about me doesn’t mean I’m going to murder you!”

“One little thing? I’d say this a pretty huge thing if you think about it!”

“Then don’t think about it!”

Ryan lets out a frustrated huff, bringing his palms up to rub over his face. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Me either. I mean, I assumed you might find out at some point, but under better circumstance of course.”

“I don’t know if there really are any ‘better circumstances’ to find out this sort of thing under,” Ryan replies, and sighs, crossing his arms over his torso, hugging himself. He looks up at Shane warily. “You’re really not gonna hurt me?”

Shane rolls his eyes. “No, Ryan, I’m not. Besides, if I wanted to hurt you, I would’ve done it a long time ago.”

Ryan’s expression falls and he freezes, suddenly overcome with fear once again. Shane quickly realizes his mistake and begins to backtrack.

“No! That’s not what I meant! I just mean that I’ve never hurt you, and I’m never going to! I don’t know why I said that other thing, just ignore that, please. Really Ryan, I would never hurt you. You have to believe me.”

Ryan’s nerves calm down a bit at the way Shane is trying so hard to reassure him, the thought that if Shane really does feel that way about harming him then he really must mean it crossing his mind. Realizing how stiff he’s become, Ryan lets the tension in his body go and falls slack against the back of the couch, exhaling loudly.

“Fuck, man. This is a lot to process.”

Shane nods his head in agreement. “I know. I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”

“You didn’t really help in trying to ease me into it though. You just kept trying to deny what I saw.”

“I thought that maybe you would drop it. Should’ve known better.”

Ryan chuckles, then the room goes silent. It isn’t awkward this time though, more static. There’s a lot of energy that’s been built up and released in the past few minutes and Ryan just needs a moment to get his thoughts straight.

“I know you might have some questions, so totally feel free to ask me anything, Ry.”

At hearing this Ryan’s head shoots up to look at Shane, a small glint in his eye, and he can’t help but to ask, “Are ghosts real?”

Shane lets out a hearty laugh, like this is the funniest thing he’s ever heard. Ryan tries hard to fight against the blush of embarrassment that starts to heat up his cheeks, but to no avail.

“Ryan, you just found out I’m a demon and you still want to know if ghosts are real?”

Ryan nods his head. “Well, yeah. Some conformation would be nice.”

Shane’s grin grows. “Yes, Ryan, ghosts are real! Always have been! You were right.”

A smile starts to appear across Ryan’s lips as well. “Wish I could’ve gotten that on tape. Our fans would’ve gone nuts.” At the thought of their fans and their show, Ryan’s heart suddenly leaps. “Shit! The show! What are we gonna do?”

Shane looks at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well, ghosts are fucking real, Shane! We have to tell them!”

“Woah woah woah, Ryan, calm down. We can’t just go around telling everybody all about ghosts, and we especially can’t tell them about me. I mean, some might believe, but most aren’t gonna listen without proof, and I can’t let anyone else know what I really am.”

Ryan takes a moment to think over everything Shane says. “Well, what about ghosts, though? You could admit that ghosts are real.”

“Ryan, even if I did that, we don’t have any concrete proof.”

“Yet.”

“There are many things you have to learn about ghosts, Ryan.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, first off, when a demon like me comes waltzing into someplace haunted, every ghost within the vicinity tends to run and hide until I’m gone.”

“Probably because you taunt them all the time.”

“Well yes, and no.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

Shane lets out an exasperated sigh. “No matter what I say or do, they aren’t gonna come out in the presence of a demon, Ryan. They’re too scared. It’s the energy I give off.”

“So that’s why we’ve barely ever get any evidence?”

“For the most part.”

“What about the evidence we do get? The spirit box, the footsteps, the flashlights?”

“The spirit box is mostly shit. The more ballsy ghosts will try to use it, but it’s hard to string a sentence together from another plane. The footsteps are in fact them wandering around, but the flashlights? Those are me.”

Ryan’s eyebrows shoot up, taken aback by the admission. “What do you mean the flashlights are you?’

Shane chuckles. “Ghosts are too weak to manipulate the flashlights, but I can since I’m right there. I can even do it from another room.”

“So, every time a flashlight has turned on and off during an investigation, that was you?”

“Yep.”

“You dick! You nearly gave me a fucking heart attack at the Sallie House!”

Shane laughs heartily as he recalls that night, bracing his hands against his knees. “Oh my god, that was hilarious! Your reactions were amazing! That was one of the best nights of my life, honest to God.”

“You’re a fucking dick,” Ryan replies, then stops to think for a moment. “Wait, you can say that?”

“What?”

“God.”

“What? Of course I can. It’s just a name, Ryan. It can’t physically harm me. Not like, say, a blessed pen or a disguised cup of holy water.”

Ryan’s cheeks heat up as he recalls the failed plans he had put into action against Shane throughout the week. “You knew about those?”

“Of course I did, Ryan. I could tell the pen was blessed as soon as you took it out of your bag. Same with the holy water as soon as you put it down next to me.”

“You could sense them?”

“Their presence. It’s a supernatural being thing.”

Ryan wants to roll his eyes at the comment, but the overall weirdness of it and the situation keep him from doing so.

“So, what about the show, then?” Ryan asks, at a loss.

Shane thinks over the question for a few moments, rubbing at his chin, before answering. “Well, obviously we can continue True Crime. And I assume the same can be said for Supernatural.”

“But how?”

“We can keep going on hunts. I’ll keep up the denial schtick and you can keep compiling evidence. If you have the evidence, you can release it to the world. We just can’t let them know about me, though.”

“But it won’t be the same. I know ghosts are real now.”

“Ryan, you already believed in ghosts. You might be a bit more concrete in your belief now, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop compiling evidence. You can continue to try to convert more people into Boogaras.”

Ryan laughs. “But what about you?”

“Like I said, I’ll keep up the schtick. It’ll all be the same. We’ll still just be two ghost hunters, going into haunted locations and trying to compile evidence while fucking around. Nothing has to change.”

Ryan gives the notion some thought before nodding his head. “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am,” Shane replies, causing Ryan to scoff. Shane disregards it and continues. “So, any more questions?”

“If you’re a demon, what are you doing here?”

Shane seems a bit shocked by the question, like he hadn’t expected it, but quickly pulls himself together. “I’m kind of like demon recon. I stay up here on Earth, make sure everything is running smoothly. No stray demons or ghosts mucking about. If so, I put them in their place. Sometimes I have to call for backup, but not too often. I’ve been doing this since the dawn of time, I think I’ve got it handled,” he finishes smugly.

Ryan’s eyes widen. “Holy shit, how old are you?”

“Old. Like really old. Older than Earth itself.”

“So you’ve lived through everything?”

“Sure have.”

“Ah, so that’s why you like history so much.”

Shane pauses. “Huh. I guess so.”

“Wait,” Ryan suddenly starts, thinking back on something Shane had said. “Demon recon? So, you’re like a spy? Is that why you like spy theories so much as well?”

Shane looks at him, surprised, then begins to laugh. “Holy shit! I never thought of it that way! Yeah, that’s probably why!” Ryan begins to laugh as well. Shane continues, “I’m basically a spy! How about that, I’m your demon spy best friend. Nobody can top that.”

After their laughter dies down, Ryan looks to Shane, his features now serious. “Wait, but I’ve met your family. That doesn’t make any sense. If you’ve been on Earth since the beginning of time, then how did you come to be a Madej? Did you reproduce with other demons? Or humans? Or… did you posses the real Shane Madej?”

“Oh no, I’ve don’t usually go around possessing people, that’s not really my thing. And it’s quite rude,” Shane starts, quick to answer. “And no, I didn’t reproduce with any demons, or humans. We can’t really do that. That isn’t how that works.”

“Then who are the other Madej’s?”

“Other demons that have been here on ‘recon’ as well. Us in this part of the world band together to blend in. Of course, we have to move a lot and change our names, identities, appearance. You know.”

“Shit, you really are like a spy.”

“I know, thinking about it like that makes it sound pretty cool, actually.”

There’s a lull in the conversation. Ryan has thought of a question but has to take a moment to get up the nerve to ask it.

Finally, after a few long seconds, Ryan asks, “Why me?”

Shane looks at him, puzzled. “What do you mean?’

“Why me? You said you’re my best friend, but you’ve probably had a million of them. There’s probably some poor eighty-year-old that you had to leave behind who’s out there missing his ‘best friend’ right now.”

Shane smiles at him fondly. “There isn’t. I’ve never really had a friend like you, Ryan. I’ve had acquaintances, neighbors, colleagues, but that’s really it. Certainly not anyone who’s known what I really am. In all of history, you’re the first.”

Ryan can feel heat begin to blossom in his chest, fondness, and strangely, he begins to feel a bit choked up. “But why me?”

Shane huffs out a small laugh. “I don’t know. You’re just different, Ry. I’ve never gotten to know someone as well as you. I’ve always just been doing my demonly job. I never took a moment to think about doing anything else. But then I started working at BuzzFeed for my cover and got sat next to you, and you were so persistent on being friends that I started to actually become involved and get to know you. Then we started working on Unsolved together, something right up my alley, and I got to know you even more. And I like you, Ryan. It’s kind of fuck-all with everyone else, I don’t really care about them that much. But you’re different. I can honestly say that you’re my best friend. My first ever.”

Ryan’s beaming up at him. Then, suddenly, he lunges forward, gathering Shane into a tight hug. After a few moments he lets go, and looks up at Shane, big smile still across his face. “I love you, buddy.”

Shane looks down at him fondly, smile turning warm. “I love you too, Ry.”

Ryan then scoots away and sits back against the couch.

“So,” he starts. “What do we do know?”

“Uh, we can watch a movie?” Shane suggests, and Ryan laughs. It wasn’t exactly the route he was going down, but he’ll take it.

“Sure, big guy.”

Shane reaches forward and grabs the remote to the TV off of his coffee table, turning it on and going to Amazon Prime Video. He starts to scroll through the movies before settling on Bruce Almighty and starting the movie. The selection suddenly leaves Ryan with a big question burning in the back of his mind.

“I’ve got another question,” Ryan starts, bringing Shane’s attention away from the TV to him.

“Yeah?”

“So… God?”

Shane laughs. “I think we should save that conversation for another time, Ryan. You gotta give yourself some time to process everything before jumping right in for the big kahuna.”

“Well, great film choice, then.”

“Shut up and watch the movie.”

***

Two months later the ghoul boys are shooting on location at an abandoned slaughterhouse, said to be inhabited by the spirits of the many workers who met their untimely demises there.

“There’s, like, three spirits, four _tops_ roaming around here. They’ve gone into hiding though, so I doubt we’re gonna catch anything compelling,” Shane murmurs to Ryan as they set up their GoPro harnesses, careful not to be heard by any of the other film crew members setting up around them. Ryan looks up at him, distressed.

“Shane! You can’t just say things like that here!” he whispers harshly. “And I didn’t want to know!”

“Why not? Now you won’t be as freaked out.”

“Maybe I wanted to be freaked out!”

Shane rolls his eyes. “You hate being scared, yet you want to be scared. You don’t make any sense.” Ryan ‘hmph’s in response, which Shane ignores. “Besides, you’ll probably be scared anyway.”

Ryan narrows his eyes. “Shut up. You don’t know me.”

“Oh, I think I know you better than most.”

“I’m not the one harboring the big secret here, pal.”

The two are interrupted by a member of their film crew, informing them that everything was set and ready to go. Once finished, the crew member walks away, and Shane turns to Ryan, smile wide and bright.

“Let’s go catch us some ghosts, Ry!” Shane exclaims then begins to walk away, heading towards the front of the building, ready to film the first few takes of their entrance into the factory. Ryan follows behind, quickly catching up, trying hard to hide his amused smile.

“You know, I feel the presence of a demon here,” he starts, earning a few glances from their fellow crew members as the walk out into the open. “Maybe we’ll catch something demonic tonight.”

Shane turns to look at him, one corner of his lips tugged into a small yet mischievous smirk. He stares down at Ryan, and Ryan thinks he might’ve just seen a glint of red flash from deep within Shane’s eyes.

“Oh ho, you never know, Ryan,” Shane starts, leaning towards him. “Tonight just might be your lucky night.”

**Author's Note:**

> #BringBackTheHotDaga2020


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